Homeowners Insurance For Florida
Wow - what a deal
In case you are with Florida's state run insurance provider, your home insurance rates 're going up by approximately 10% this year. If you have your Florida home insurance with a private company, you will end up facing rate increases from 10-15%. However, if Florida insurance firms have their way, you may be losing significant discounts that could dramatically increase the cost of your homeowners insurance.
Wow - what a deal
Currently, Florida homeowners enjoy what is known as a wind mitigation discount for various home features that will make your home more resistant against hurricanes. Home insurance companies have to give you this discount under Florida law along with a specific formula should be used to calculate it. It offers discounts for things like the shape of your roof, whether your roof has a secondary backup system for removing water, the strategy used to attach your homes roof to the walls of your house, and whether or not your home has hurricane shutters and others.
Home insurance consumers in Florida have enjoyed these discounts which is often up to 50% of the wind premium on a home. However, homeowners sometimes are disappointed with those discounts also. One homeowner who was simply showcased in the St. Petersburg Times invested $5,225 to boost the garage door and for hurricane shutters on his home in Spring Hill, Florida. He was very upset to discover that his $5,225 investment would only give him a discount of $16.11! Other homeowners in Florida have saved a lot more.
Started in 2002 in addition to improvements to the Florida building code, these wind mitigation discounts were a significant step in the process to provide lower Florida property insurance rates to those with homes more unlikely to sustain serious damage in the Florida hurricane. Those discounts were doubled through the state of Florida in 2006 to be able to provide some rate relief after the 2004/2005 hurricane season.
Right now with the approach with the 2010 Florida legislative session, property insurance companies are asking legislatures to lessen some of those discounts. In certain areas the companies might have a point. For starters, there does seem to be a certain amount of fraud related to those discounts. This fraud can be the result of homeowners misrepresentations and also due to errors in the findings from the home inspection. The point is it could lead to homes being granted discounts they aren't entitled to. Companies also mention that the doubling of those discounts in 2006 was more of a political a reaction to high rates than a scientific process to properly price the discount depending on the real way a home would perform within a hurricane.
Some companies are ordering and investing in new mitigation inspections to acquire a more accurate picture of the house hardening mitigation steps that have been performed on your home. In case a re-inspection on your home produces discrepancies, you might lose some of your discounts and face a massive increase in your Florida property insurance premiums.
From your perspective being a homeowner, rolling back these discounts would add significantly for the cost of your Florida home insurance. And this would happen during one of many worst recessions during our lifetimes. For a few Florida homeowners having these mitigation discounts modified or eliminated could result in thousands of dollars in additional premium costs.
This is a critical development that all Florida homeowners ought to be following. Even slight changes for the mitigation discounts might cause massive increases in Florida home insurance premiums that will make the speed increases already approved look like small change!
In case you are with Florida's state run insurance provider, your home insurance rates 're going up by approximately 10% this year. If you have your Florida home insurance with a private company, you will end up facing rate increases from 10-15%. However, if Florida insurance firms have their way, you may be losing significant discounts that could dramatically increase the cost of your homeowners insurance.
Wow - what a deal
Currently, Florida homeowners enjoy what is known as a wind mitigation discount for various home features that will make your home more resistant against hurricanes. Home insurance companies have to give you this discount under Florida law along with a specific formula should be used to calculate it. It offers discounts for things like the shape of your roof, whether your roof has a secondary backup system for removing water, the strategy used to attach your homes roof to the walls of your house, and whether or not your home has hurricane shutters and others.
Home insurance consumers in Florida have enjoyed these discounts which is often up to 50% of the wind premium on a home. However, homeowners sometimes are disappointed with those discounts also. One homeowner who was simply showcased in the St. Petersburg Times invested $5,225 to boost the garage door and for hurricane shutters on his home in Spring Hill, Florida. He was very upset to discover that his $5,225 investment would only give him a discount of $16.11! Other homeowners in Florida have saved a lot more.
Started in 2002 in addition to improvements to the Florida building code, these wind mitigation discounts were a significant step in the process to provide lower Florida property insurance rates to those with homes more unlikely to sustain serious damage in the Florida hurricane. Those discounts were doubled through the state of Florida in 2006 to be able to provide some rate relief after the 2004/2005 hurricane season.
Right now with the approach with the 2010 Florida legislative session, property insurance companies are asking legislatures to lessen some of those discounts. In certain areas the companies might have a point. For starters, there does seem to be a certain amount of fraud related to those discounts. This fraud can be the result of homeowners misrepresentations and also due to errors in the findings from the home inspection. The point is it could lead to homes being granted discounts they aren't entitled to. Companies also mention that the doubling of those discounts in 2006 was more of a political a reaction to high rates than a scientific process to properly price the discount depending on the real way a home would perform within a hurricane.
Some companies are ordering and investing in new mitigation inspections to acquire a more accurate picture of the house hardening mitigation steps that have been performed on your home. In case a re-inspection on your home produces discrepancies, you might lose some of your discounts and face a massive increase in your Florida property insurance premiums.
From your perspective being a homeowner, rolling back these discounts would add significantly for the cost of your Florida home insurance. And this would happen during one of many worst recessions during our lifetimes. For a few Florida homeowners having these mitigation discounts modified or eliminated could result in thousands of dollars in additional premium costs.
This is a critical development that all Florida homeowners ought to be following. Even slight changes for the mitigation discounts might cause massive increases in Florida home insurance premiums that will make the speed increases already approved look like small change!